Esports
We chat with G2 Esports’ Jankos, Mikyx and analyst Duffman about their dominant Spring Split so far and goals for 2020.
With only a few weeks left in the regular season, G2 Esports are looking like the same mighty force they were this time last year. They are in pole position in the League of Legends European Championship standings after playing (and defeating) both Origen and Fnatic last week. And their laneswap seems to be working out well so far, with both Rasmus ‘Caps’ Winther and Luka ‘Perkz’ Perković feeling comfortable in their new (or for Perkz, old) roles. We had the chance to ask them a few questions about what they think about the laneswap, their competition and the game itself – so let’s dive right into it.
After making the finals at the Worlds last autumn, having two key players swapping lanes didn’t seem the most obvious choice to most for this season. Yet, Perkz wanted to play mid lane again, and Caps happily obliged. In previous interviews both have said that if it didn’t work out, they would switch back after the Spring Split. However, both players are doing fine so far (other than the Misfits game, but we won’t talk about that). Marcin ‘Jankos’ Jankowski thinks while both players play mid and AD in a similar way, there are some key differences.
“I think that Caps was a more selfless player overall because he didn't ask for jungle attention, but he would like resources he needed to carry games,” he tells us. “With Perkz, he's more vocal as a player, so naturally me and Mikyx would play more around him.” He says that he's satisfied and that the team as a whole is still evolving.
Team analyst Christopher ‘Duffman’ Duff and Mihael ‘Mikyx’ Mehle both agree with Jankos. Duffman says that the results they had so far were expected by the staff: “Caps is improving a lot in his new lane and Perkz is looking really comfortable in returning to mid. With more time to work on their champion pools, it’s looking pretty good!” he says. Mikyx adds that he didn’t expect that much from the beginning of the split. “I think the results are fine, because we also started practising pretty late.”
Stylistically the squad has changed a little bit, but not much says Mikyx: “We still play pretty similarly except with maybe a bit more focus around mid and jungle, since we're not that vocal in bot lane, but we're working on that as well.”
Duffman meanwhile says that while they're still trying to play the game in the same way, player dynamics are different. “Normally with a swap of players, you’d have a whole new personality to work with. For us, however, we have the same personalities but in different roles, so it lets us see what we miss from last year's roster and what we actually prefer from this one.”
Flexing their muscles
In the last season, G2 Esports made a name for themselves for their insane flex picks around the map. A year on, with rival teams finally learning to expect the unexpected, we wondered if flexing picks is still a viable option in the draft. Jankos says that flexing champions has changed a bit from the last Worlds.
“Instead of seeing Akali and Irelia, we see more of Pantheon/Ornn flex for example, but flex picks are a fundamental rule of LoL right now and I don't see them disappearing anytime soon.” Duffman adds that he thinks flexing is still as great as it was before, but “the only difference would be in bot lane in the start of the split where two or three ADs were by far the strongest and were important to draft around, so that made flexing from bot lane a little less likely. That’s changing slowly though.”
The G2 Esports members are famed for their smiles and gags on stage. The squad always seems to have a lot of fun playing on the stage, but is the game itself also in a good place? Jankos certainly thinks so: “There are a lot of champions being played everywhere and while games are not as bloody as last year, you still fight a lot for objectives and early game control. With the addition of an extra 40g to turret plates starting from patch 9.15, we might see more drafts with an emphasis on laning.”
Duffman, however, disagrees. He thinks the meta isn’t as diverse as he hoped and that most games follow a similar pattern and that it’s hard to break away from that. “I don’t think the picks themselves are limited, just the way the games tend to play out is a bit predictable at times,” he explains.
The competition this split is fierce. In typical EU fashion, the LEC has seen ties in the standings throughout the entire split, and almost any team could still make it to play-offs. Who is G2’s biggest competition? Jankos thinks it’s once again Fnatic and Origen.
“I can see us and Fnatic meeting in the final again. I feel like with the addition of Oskar ‘Selfmade’ Boderek, they fixed a lot of their early game mistakes and overall look like a strong team.” For Jankos, MAD Lions are an unknown: he says they're in the upper half of the standings, but he’s not sure how they'll perform in the play-offs. Mikyx also thinks MAD Lions are “surprisingly good”, and adds Rogue to the list of G2’s rivals.
Duffman meanwhile believes all of the teams mentioned are G2’s competition. “The top contenders are probably Fnatic currently. Origen closely behind them and then any of MAD Lions, Misfits or Rogue can push us in a best of five. The standings aren’t reflective in that they show all of the teams on virtually the same level, but there's a clear play-offs group, and then the rest, which is reflective of the league right now.”
G2 Esports will have to play three more weeks of the regular season before the play-offs start. With both Fnatic and Origen out of the way, the chance that they'll once again claim the first seed is looking likely. If they manage to win this season, it would be their third split win in a row and they would have a chance to defend their MSI title from last year. Let’s hope they can keep on surprising us.